First Sergeant

From the Washington Post, by Laura Vozzella
"RICHMOND — Self-proclaimed white nationalist Richard Spencer led a large group of demonstrators carrying torches and chanting “You will not replace us” Saturday in Charlottesville, protesting plans to remove a Confederate monument that has played an outsize role in this year’s race for Virginia governor.

“What brings us together is that we are white, we are a people, we will not be replaced,” Spencer said at the first of two rallies he led in the college town where he once attended the University of Virginia....

The evening protest was short-lived. About 10 minutes in, an altercation between Spencer’s group and counterprotesters drew police to the scene, and the crowd quickly dispersed, the Charlottesville Daily Progress reported.

Once an obscure Internet figure promoting white identity, Spencer coined the term “alt-right” — referring to a small, far-right movement that seeks a whites-only state....

“You will not replace us. You will not destroy us,” Spencer said at the earlier rally, which he broadcast via Periscope video. “You cannot destroy us. We have awoken. We are here. We are never going away.”

Spencer was in Charlottesville to protest a City Council vote to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. A court injunction has halted the removal for six months...."Link to full article by the Washington Post.

Colonel

The Charlottesville rally was organized and live-streamed by Stewart's point man in Charlottesville, Jason Kessler. Stewart should not be allowed to deflect questions about his relationship with Kessler with anodyne talking points about "political correctness" and "heritage."

Colonel

"RICHMOND — Self-proclaimed white nationalist Richard Spencer led a large group of demonstrators carrying torches and chanting “You will not replace us” Saturday in Charlottesville, protesting plans to remove a Confederate monument that has played an outsize role in this year’s race for Virginia governor.

“What brings us together is that we are white, we are a people, we will not be replaced,” Spencer said at the first of two rallies he led in the college town where he once attended the University of Virginia....

The evening protest was short-lived. About 10 minutes in, an altercation between Spencer’s group and counterprotesters drew police to the scene, and the crowd quickly dispersed, the Charlottesville Daily Progress reported.

Once an obscure Internet figure promoting white identity, Spencer coined the term “alt-right” — referring to a small, far-right movement that seeks a whites-only state....

“You will not replace us. You will not destroy us,” Spencer said at the earlier rally, which he broadcast via Periscope video. “You cannot destroy us. We have awoken. We are here. We are never going away.”

Spencer was in Charlottesville to protest a City Council vote to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. A court injunction has halted the removal for six months.

The statue has become a rallying cry for a Republican gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart. Stewart, who is chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, was chairman of Trump’s Virginia campaign until he was fired.

There was no indication that Stewart, who has alienated some supporters with his focus on Confederate symbols, attended either rally. In defending the Confederate battle flag and monuments, Stewart has said that he is not promoting symbols of hate but battling “political correctness” and “historical vandalism.”

Stewart did not respond to a request for comment Sunday. He kept a relatively low-profile on Twitter.

“I want to wish all the mothers a very special Mother’s Day today!” he said in one of his few tweets of the day."

Yes. But you know that ol' law of physics, the equal-and-opposite-reaction thing? Just as the shooting in Charleston in June 2015 led to a reaction against Confederate monuments and iconography, people like Spencer saw it as an opportunity to appeal to reach out and appeal to resentment against minorities, immigrants, and other groups perceived as threatening what they view as "true" American culture, i.e., white Christians of European descent. The "alt.right" had largely shunned Confederate symbols until the Charleston shooting gave them an opening.

Example: For a year of more before Charleston, the League of the South and other southern nationalist groups had been organizing protests and rallies calling for secession, and explicitly banned Confederate flags and symbols because they believed them to be distracting from their message, that was froward-looking, a modern political and cultural movement. But almost immediately, they re-adopted the CBF and other explicitly Confederate symbols and suddenly took up a renewed interest in preservation of monuments and the like. They don't give two shits about Bobby Lee or Stonewall Jackson, except as symbols of white identity:

It's incredibly crass and exploitive, but they believe it works. And there seems to be very little real concern on on the part of heritage groups about white nationalists like Spencer, the League of the South, the NSM, and the Klan, all of whom have been very visible in high-profile public protests in New Orleans last weekend, and in Charlottesville Saturday. As I said last week, if Jefferson Davis could have seen the nasty clown show the protest around his monument in New Orleans had become, I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd taken a header off that pedestal on his own, just to be done with it.

Retired User

From the Washington Post, by Laura Vozzella
"RICHMOND — Self-proclaimed white nationalist Richard Spencer led a large group of demonstrators carrying torches and chanting “You will not replace us” Saturday in Charlottesville, protesting plans to remove a Confederate monument that has played an outsize role in this year’s race for Virginia governor.

“What brings us together is that we are white, we are a people, we will not be replaced,” Spencer said at the first of two rallies he led in the college town where he once attended the University of Virginia....

The evening protest was short-lived. About 10 minutes in, an altercation between Spencer’s group and counterprotesters drew police to the scene, and the crowd quickly dispersed, the Charlottesville Daily Progress reported.

Once an obscure Internet figure promoting white identity, Spencer coined the term “alt-right” — referring to a small, far-right movement that seeks a whites-only state....

“You will not replace us. You will not destroy us,” Spencer said at the earlier rally, which he broadcast via Periscope video. “You cannot destroy us. We have awoken. We are here. We are never going away.”

Spencer was in Charlottesville to protest a City Council vote to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. A court injunction has halted the removal for six months...."Link to full article by the Washington Post.

Retired User

Virginia Declares State of Emergency After ‘Pro-White’ Rally Gets Violent

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency Saturday after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville erupted into violent clashes before it even began. Emancipation Park, the site of the rally, filled up with white supremacists, armed right-wing militias and alt-right groups hours before the rally began at noon, with organizers protesting the city’s plans to remove a Confederate-era monument. Fights quickly broke out when those groups were confronted by counterprotesters, among them Black Lives Matter activists. Protesters were armed with sticks and clubs as they faced off against the counterprotesters, with some of them at one point wielding the Confederate flag like a lance and charging into a crowd. The two sides used chemical sprays on each other and came to blows before police intervened to disperse the crowd. Members of the National Guard were seen arriving in armored vehicles as riot police began blocking off the roads, while several white nationalist groups moved their gathering to another park in the city. Police said arrests were underway as of Saturday afternoon but gave no further details.
Source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/virginia-declares-state-of-emergency-after-pro-white-rally-gets-violent

Colonel

Watching the video from Charlottesville on CNN, the striking thing about it is that everyone there this morning, on both sides, came looking for a fight — shields, helmets, pepper spray, 2 x 4's, masks, bandanas, everything. If some of these fnckers get their heads cracked, fine by me. There's too much genuine injustice and suffering in this world to spend time worrying about people who have gone out of their way looking for it.

Retired User

Watching the video from Charlottesville on CNN, the striking thing about it is that everyone there this morning, on both sides, came looking for a fight — shields, helmets, pepper spray, 2 x 4's, masks, bandanas, everything. If some of these fnckers get their heads cracked, fine by me. There's too much genuine injustice and suffering in this world to spend time worrying about people who have gone out of their way looking for it.

Agreed. But, I am worried about people who did not come to fight - and just live around the area. My cousin is in his 2nd year at UVA. So, I'm pretty upset. Not fearful for him, but really concerned.

My membership on this forum has taught me some of the monument protectors are not bigoted - but I now see that many of the monuments are igniters for violence and hate.

Currently, there hasn't been opposing push back from younger Black Americans as a whole or in large united numbers - mainly because we have other things we have to deal with in other areas of our lives. But the continuation of rallies and the allowance of out in the open protest like this will only lead to more racial violence.

My question is - what is the end goal - because it really makes my blood boil and my heart hurt at the same time.

Colonel

Both sides, at least in their minds, are defending their heritage. As a nation we try to accept differnt heritages. Ad a nation we should look at both side in Charlottesville and see who we should support, or we can opt to support neither side.